Clinton Charity Given $2.35M as State Dept. OK'd Uranium Sale: WSJ

The State Department under former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton approved of the sale of one of America's largest uranium mines at the same time that a charity supported by the Clinton Foundation received a donation from the seller's charitable foundation, The Wall Street Journal reported.

Between 2008 and 2012, the Clinton Giustra Sustainable Growth Initiative received $2.35 million from the Fernwood Foundation, a family charity run by Ian Telfer, chairman of Uranium One before its sale.

The sale of 51 percent of Uranium One to a unit of Rosatom, Russia's state nuclear agency, was approved in 2010, the Journal said. The sale price was $610 million.

The book outlines a number of potential conflicts of interest between Clinton's work at the State Department and her charitable work.

The Journal has previously reported that at least 60 companies that lobbied the State Department during Clinton's tenure donated a total of more than $26 million to the Clinton Foundation.

Josh Schwerin, a campaign spokesman for Clinton, told the Journal that the sale of Uranium One "went through the usual process, and the official responsible for managing CFIUS reviews has stated that the secretary did not intervene with him. This book is twisting previously known facts into absurd conspiracy theories."

Jose Fernandez, a former assistant secretary of state who held the position of the department's principal representative on the Committee on Foreign Investment in the United States (CFIUS), which reviewed the sale, said, "Secretary Clinton never intervened with me on any CFIUS matter."

In an interview Wednesday, Tefler said that he made the donations to support Frank Giustra, a Canadian mining executive who co-founded the program to spur development in poor countries.

"The donations started before there was any idea of this takeover," Tefler said, according to the Journal. "And I can't imagine Hillary Clinton would have been aware of this donation to this growth initiative."

The State Department under Hillary Clinton approved of the sale of one of America's largest uranium mines at the same time that a charity supported by the Clinton Foundation received a donation from the seller's foundation, The Wall Street Journal reports.